This invention relates generally to wireless technology, and particularly to providing information to wireless mobile devices.
With the rapid expansion of wireless technology, many hand-held mobile devices are now capable of various applications, such as performing stock trades, sending/receiving text messages, etc. As wireless technology becomes more pervasive, it opens up new windows for companies and content providers to deliver personalized and localized information to mobile device holders. For example, a mobile device holder on the move may need information such as local weather, local maps, and/or directions to local hotels and restaurants, and it is desirable to deliver this information directly to the mobile device.
Companies and content providers do not usually know what information a mobile device holder may desire at a particular time and location. Some companies and content providers have designed applications to push information to mobile devices based on the assumption that at least some of the device holders are at locations where the information is useful. However, as usually happens, a large percentage of this information is not useful to the vast majority of mobile device users. This unwanted information can flood the mobile devices and consume bandwidth, memory, and battery power.
For these reasons, it is more efficient for a mobile device user to initiate the delivery of desired information, for example, by entering the universal resource locater (xe2x80x9cURLxe2x80x9d) of a website holding the desired information. On the other hand, a mobile device user may be limited by the capabilities of the mobile device. For example, a cell phone has a small monochrome screen and no convenient way to input long text strings. The user of the cell phone may find it easier to dial xe2x80x9c411xe2x80x9d than to input names or addresses via multiple button presses in order to make use of a wireless directory look-up service. Also, much like the current concerns with people driving and using a cell phone, there are safety issues related to people in automobiles trying to obtain content on the Internet by entering long strings of URLs. Moreover, a URL is often not easy to memorize. Therefore, a user may have to go through lengthy searches on the Internet to find a desired website. These searches consume time and battery power, and are not practical when the user is driving a vehicle.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and system for providing desired content to a mobile device holder without the aforementioned disadvantages.
The present invention meets the above need by assigning a short identifier, called a xe2x80x9cmarker,xe2x80x9d to an entity about which the mobile device user is interested in obtaining information. In one embodiment of the present invention, every marker is associated with a particular domain, such as a geographic area. Markers can be re-used in different domains.
In one embodiment, the present invention utilizes a mobile network support system and a content server. The mobile device user initiates the delivery of the desired content or another action by entering the marker into a mobile device. The mobile device transmits the marker to the mobile network support system. Preferably, a context server within the mobile network support system determines a context for the marker, such as the geographic location of the mobile device. Then, the mobile network support system sends a message including the marker and the context to the content server.
The content server is in communication with a content database, which stores content associated with markers for specified domains. A domain mapping module within the content server uses the context information to map the marker to a domain. The content server retrieves the content referenced by the given marker and domain from the content database and sends it to the mobile network support system, which then transmits the content to the mobile device. Alternatively, the content server uses the content to contact the entity associated with the marker on behalf of the mobile device user or performs some other action.